"Comprehensive Plan" Will Negatively Impact High Volume Players

Published on 2015-11-02 01:10:00

If you are a high volume player that makes his/her living multi-tabling on Pokerstars, the site essentially punched you in the face earlier today.

Pokerstars revealed a "comprehensive plan" for an "Enhanced Pokerstars Experience" that will be phased in over the coming months. This plan includes a number of different points, including the introduction of "StarsCoin", the introduction of a VIP Steps program, increased restrictions on third party software and a significant scaling back of awards for high volume players.

According to Pokerstars, FPPs, Stellar Rebates and Milestone Rewards will all be phased out next year and replaced by the "StarsCoin", which will have a fixed value of 1 cent each. According to Pokerstars, the introduction of "StarsCoin" will "simplify the reward system" and "enhance its visibility during play". Pokerstars claims that under their new system, VIP status players from BronzeStar to GoldStar will, more or less, receive the same amount of rewards as they do now.

Higher volume players, on the other hand, will continue to see their rewards scaled back under this new system. VIP Club rewards will be capped at 30%, while PlatinumStar status players will see a 10% reduction in their rewards. According to Pokerstars, those players who achieve SuperNova Elite status in 2015 will receive 45% rewards for the entirety of 2016.

In addition, Pokerstars revealed that there will be no VPPs paid out for:

-PL and NL games with blinds of $5-$10+
-8-game $10-$20+
-other limit games of $10-$15+

According to Pokerstars, these changes were implemented to deal with high transaction and operation costs for these games.

In addition, Pokerstars also revealed that there will be more restrictions on third party software put into place in 2016.

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Amaya, Inc. has made it clear in recent months that they are primarily interested in the casual player. In addition to this recent spate of changes, Pokerstars has also been rolling out new offerings that are aimed primarily at casual players, including casino games and sports betting.

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If you are a high volume grinder, Pokerstars is sending you a simple message - we don't want you.